MUMBAI: After launching in the US, Canada and the UK, The Walt Disney Company is reportedly ready to take next step in the global expansion of Hotstar, Star India’s over-the-top platform and India’s largest OTT channel.
That next step is to move into South-East Asia and West Asian countries, which would pretty much cover over 75% of the estimated 40 million expatriate South Asian population, Business Standard reports.
According to the report, the programming would concentrate of shows in Hindi and regional languages, movies and wherever possible, sports.
The developments are in line with what Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, had indicated in August during Disney’s earning call, where he revealed that plans were in place for the expansion of Hotstar in South-East Asia.
A timeline of developments around Hotstar’s expansion will provide context (credit Wikipedia):
*In September 2017, Star Sports acquired the entirety of the media rights to the Indian Premier League, with Hotstar acting as the international digital rightsholder.
*Afterward, Hotstar launched an international subscription service in Canada and the United States, aimed towards providing domestic Indian content and sports.
*Hotstar launched in the United Kingdom in September 2018, to coincide with the 2018 Asia Cup.
*On January 4, 2019, Star discontinued their international linear pay television channels in the US (such as Star Plus), in order to focus more on marketing the Hotstar service in the market as an alternative.
*By 2019, the service had over 150 million active users monthly. In March 2019, ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League, Hotstar replaced its All Annual Sports plan with Hotstar VIP. Intended as an introductory option, it includes access to sports content (including the IPL, 2019 Cricket World Cup, and English Premier League football), early access to serials before their television broadcast, access to content from the new Hotstar Specials banner of content, and can be paid for using cash. Chief product officer Varun Narang described the offering as “a value proposition built with the Indian audience at the heart of it”. Existing All Annual Sports subscribers were upgraded to VIP at no additional charge.
Star, and in turn Hotstar, were acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2019, as part of its acquisition of their U.S. parent company 21st Century Fox. In April 2019, Livemint reported that content from Disney’s forthcoming subscription service Disney+ will likely be carried by Hotstar in India.
